Lifting of Sunday alcohol ban hits snag

While Yalies may have returned to campus this Sunday, the legal sale of alcohol on all Sundays is looking less likely to return.

Legislation that would allow the Sunday sale of alcohol in Connecticut, which has been banned since 1933, failed a voice vote in the state’s General Law Committee last Tuesday, preventing the amendment from reaching the full legislature. Still, State Representative Kathleen Tallarita and State Senator John Kissel, who both support the bill, said they would continue to push for its passage, potentially in the state’s Finance Committee or on the floor of the House, the Connecticut Post reported.

“We have small mom-and-pop hairstyling, barbers, every other kind of business, they don’t have these kinds of protections that we have in statute,” Kissel said, adding that he believes the Sunday ban on alcohol sales is unconstitutional.

Voters also support repealing the ban. 66 percent of the almost 1,700 Connecticut residents surveyed in a March 10 Quinnipiac University Poll supported the Sunday sale of alcohol in liquor stores, with 31 percent of sampled voters against the legislation and the rest undecided.

But Carroll Hughes, a lobbyist for the Connecticut Package Stores Association, which represents over 1,100 liquor stores, told the Connecticut Post the vote was a victory for small liquor stores, which would have lost Sunday sales to supermarkets even as they faced increased overhead costs.

The legislature can consider new versions of the bill until it adjourns its current session on June 8.